24: Legacy continues its downward spiral in the ratings department with last night’s episode getting just 4.40 million overall viewers and 1.0 in the 18-49 demographic.

Simply put, these are not good numbers. Legacy has yet to show any signs of ratings stability, and has actually suffered an even bigger decline this week. It has already dropped below FOX’s previous Mondays at 8:00pm time slot occupant Gotham. It’s also providing a weak lead-in to FOX’s new crime series APB. Even the delayed viewing figures are far below many other broadcast dramas. There’s just no positive way to spin these numbers.

It will be interesting to see if the ratings tick upwards at all with the imminent return of Tony Almeida, but at this point things aren’t looking good.

Updated March 9th: Live+7 Ratings
24: Legacy’s fourth episode grew by 2.167 million viewers (49%) after seven days of delayed viewing. Total viewers are now 6.589 million. The 18-49 demo increased from a 1.0 to a 1.7 (70% increase). source.

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73 Comments

24marathonman

While this is not good news, it is way too early to speculate on 24 Legacy’s future. If not picked up for a second season on over-the air TV, I think it would get picked up by Amazon or other streaming services.

Marlon

Pat

Lots of legal maneuvering. Unless they already have the rights to stream the show, then it is easier. And there is always a kickback to the shows producer, Fox, CBS, etc.

And that is how some shows with crap ratings survive because Netflix or Hulu pay a hefty fee for episode. So CBS makes more, like in the case of Extant dor example, that Halle Berry thing.

Also probably why the CW were able to renew that Crazy Ex Girlfriend show because Netflix pays a hefty fee to stream new seasons a week after their final episode airs, or somewhere close to that time frame.

XAM

If only. Thing is though, Fox doesn’t fucking allow closure in any of its shows. Look at The X-Files and Prison Break, look at Season 8 and LAD – all denied a satisfying conclusion because there might be a movie or there might be another season.

Justin

I encourage everyone to read this article fully and not judge the success of 24 Legacy based on live ratings only. Also we only have the DVR ratings for live +7 for the first episode and live + 3 for the second episode. Both are decent. This is just DVR. If you read this article, Fox also considers, online and on demand. Online and on demand viewership is never reported by Nielsen. 24 Legacy is airing in a different time of technology, one where a serialized show like 24 people like to binge watch without commercials.

The show is doing fine without Jack! This season has been amazing, with the best yet to come and Tony as well. The ratings will rise when Tony is back or stabilize where it is. It’s also doing better than several other shows. The show will get renewed, they will close Jack’s story, then next week will go up in the ratings and once Jack’s story is closed, people will accept a season 3 of Legacy. Also I see a 24 movie or 24 TV movies taking place in the breaks between seasons. If a movie or several happens with Jack and the movie and series feed off of each other then that could draw more fans in for future seasons

There are more story to tell for 24 Legacy, Fox and producers have a great relationship, its airing in 160 countries, and the show just needs time to catch on like the original 24 did. Also the show is getting more intense, Tony will be back soon and I think the ratings will stabilize here or maybe rise a bit. It’s also doing better than several other shows on Fox!

WouldntYouLikeToKnow

I’m disappointed more people aren’t giving this a chance. I mean more 24 is a good thing. Give it a chance, and 24 existing is a good vehicle to bring back other former characters until Designated Survivor ends. If they have Tony in season 1, I bet they’d bring back others in season 2. But if people are just so against 24 without Jack, I think it robs us off a chance to have this cross over with Jack later on. It isn’t like they fired Kiefer. And it’s not like Kiefer will leave Designated Survivor and jump to the rescue if people don’t watch this. He’s in support of Legacy and gave his seal of approval, so to speak, in the form of his executive producer credit every episode.

24 has always had an ever-changing cast, which has both worked for and against it. I certainly didn’t care as much about Cole Ortiz, Arlo Glass and Brian Hastings as I did about Tony, Michelle and George Mason. But then again, the ever-changing cast also gave us darlings like Renee Walker, Belcheck and yes Chloe, who didn’t show up until Day 3.

This current cast of Legacy may not have the history Nina, David Palmer and Jack Bauer had, but I think they are setting up some interesting characters that could grow in the future.

Plot elements may be repetitive (I rolled my eyes at the Donovans hiding that they bought oil from terrorists) but let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that wasn’t always the case on 24. We’ve had nuclear threats in Days 2, 4, 6 and 8. We’ve had drones in Days 6 and 8. Presidential assassination attempts/successes in Days 2 (Mandy/Palmer), 4 (Air Force One), 5 (Palmer), 6 (Wayne), 7 (White House), 8 (Hassan) and 9 (Heller). I mean jesus. Shows like CSI or some such have the same plot every episode. It’s a MacGuffin to spin the plot around. I think this army ranger thing and chase for the sleeper cell list is perfectly find as a means to experience great action and a new 24. Yes, we already had a chase for a recording in Days 2 and 5, which boils down to the same thing really.

But I think people just forgave the original 24 way more than they do 24 Legacy just because Jack’s not in it.

I mean if even XAM can get some enjoyment out of Legacy, it can’t be all that tragically horrible, can it? Haha.

I do really hope with Tony Almeida back soon more people tune in. But from a writer’s perspective people need to understand that it’s important to establish new characters first.
The alternative is not having 24 at all and I’d rather take this than nothing. And Eric Carter is actually a pretty cool guy in my opinion.

I may personally not see the point of the Isaac & Nicole storyline but even so I enjoy watching the actors. And frankly the high school storyline is utterly comedic in a way I enjoy. They just ramped up the crazy in it to a point where it’s just fun for me to see what will go wrong next.

Sorry for the wall of text, I just dumped all my thoughts. To each their own, but I hope more people give it a chance. Stay awesome, people.

I think the much bigger issue here is that those who actually did give Legacy a chance don’t seem to be sticking around judging by the continually declining ratings. This points to an issue with the writing more than anything else.

You make some good points that 24 has been repetitive in the past, but I think it’s a lot more noticeable now that there’s an entirely new cast playing out many of the same familiar scenarios. The writers need to establish these new characters and let them stand on their own, but when they continue to be put in the same familiar scenarios, it just reminds the audience about the older characters. Not good.

And to be honest, with a three year break and just twelve episodes to write this time around, there’s not as much excuse for the writers to be rehashing storylines, especially not this early in the season. I think that is a fair criticism.

Dave26

Agreed, I tried to give this a chance but its been so repetitive to the point where I couldn’t even pay attention throughout episode 4 out of boredom. I’m only still watching for Tony’s return to see how his story finishes

stalyn cachi

I am very worried about the rating of 24 legacy, I think it would be a good idea to overcome the series due to the great absence of kiefer sutherland. My idea is that it would be good to integrate the series actors who were in series world-wide known like The Walking Dead, among others. They could bring steve yeun, scott wilson, laurie holden, jon bernthal, so you could trace the series to the clouds and bring the old characters of 24. you need more action and violence, but not achieved with 12 episodes should do it in 16 or as it was always 24 episodes. I would like 24 legacy to have a second season, gordon and katz should strive more in the development of the series. Besides the actors I want to see at least a couple of cast deaths

Justin

Viewers do not have patience these days like they used too which is stupid. Viewers need to have more patience along with the networks. Can u imagine if Fox cancelled 24 in 2001 cuz the show started off slow in the ratings? 24 the original got better in seasons 2 and beyond and so did ratings. I see the same happening with 24 Legacy. Season 1 of any show is always slow as they need to introduce new characters. I heard the producers want to do crime stories and KKK stories in future seasons. And if you remember 24 in 2001 after Fox released the show on DVD, ratings went up in season 2. So 24 Legacy needs time to catch up.

Dave26

Nitromancer

Asian Rebel

How do they know how many 18-31 year old watched for example? I think there’s issue with a lot of this data. ALso with the nature of each season being an entire day, it takes time for the action and suspense to build. This is much better than Gotham or Six.

JustinFan69

I think Fox should swap 24 and APB timeslots as this might bring old viewers in out of habit. But I’m hoping the show is sold to Hulu like The Mindy Project so it can thrive with all episodes released at once. 24 must live on!

Brad

XAM

Because it’s a Fox thing, they can never just let anything end. See: The X-Files and Prison Break, and the half-arsed, cop-out conclusions to Season 8 and LAD because of the potential for movies/more seasons.

WouldntYouLikeToKnow

This is an interesting point. Prison Break had a final… final ending. And now they bring it back which makes no sense whatsoever, because a certain character died of electrocution and without that would’ve died of their brain thing anyway. So even IF Fox killed Jack Bauer in a way so that a return would be impossible… they might still miraculously revive him if they wanted another “event series.” I can understand them wanting to hang on to their series, but yeah… it’s certainly not the best thing for the actual storytelling.

Kevin K

Joshua

I think it would be a disservice if they didn’t touch Jack’s story if this gets cancelled. If their desire is to end it this just put the darn idea’s they had for the movie & put it into the 10th season. & end it that way. I dunno why that’s so hard for them to agree to close that out. They’re just screwing up this show without Jack. Go back to the Russian story if this fails. This is a disaster.

XAM

Jack comes back for one last hurrah – fans get excited about getting a satisfying conclusion to Jack’s story – Ratings jump sky high – Fox then start thinking about milk and say “WAIT!” as they order the writers/producers to shelve any ideas for any conclusion they might have come up with. Jack goes on the run again (ala Seasons 4 and 8) or goes to prison again (ala seasons 5 and LAD), leaving it open for more… again… cunts!

Marlon

Pat

Yep, Fox are the worst for letting things actually end. But then all networks seem to be getting on the bandwagon these days.

But it is pretty bad when it makes more sense for Fuller House to continue than Prison Break. I mean the guy was dead or had a brain thingy that would make him dead. It wasn’t Stargate where the main characters could die 50 times and be brought back.

Pat

As for ratings, the landscape has changed drastically since even LAD aired. People have no patience and want to binge watch something like 24. That and people don’t want to pay $120 a month for cable where they only watch 6 of the 1000 channels. So they wait for it to go online and then watch. The Nielson rating thing is so in the stone ages it isn’t funny, but sadly that is what networks still go by, and when stuck with that, these ratings stink. Plus with so many shows vying for one’s attention these days, can be hard to attract viewers. Still, Fox get what they deserve after always dicking fans around.

Chlojack

The ratings aren’t a surprise. 24’s ratings were already in decline in the last few seasons, so a lot of viewers had moved on. Also, when 24 came out it was a groundbreaking show, and the serialized format was unique to television. But it just doesn’t impress as much in the current era of cinematic and serialized TV shows.

Also, I think it’s really hard for them to generally shock audiences. The mole plot has been overused. They’ve set of a nuke, killed off fan favorites. It’s just hard for them to come up with anything that can top what they’ve done.

And of course Kiefer’s absence isn’t helping. I really hope they do one more series with him and actually give Jack a conclusive ending this time.

tiny

I for one have only watched the first episode, but that’s because I was so hyped after my team won the Superbowl, that I said what the heck,why not, but I haven’t watched another episode since. However, because I am still in love with Tony, I will be watching just for him, then I am out.

Gus

Tony can’t help the declining ratings for two reasons :
1- I think they waited too long to bring him into the story line, we’re already in the 5th episode and still no sign of Tony , people have already jumped ship because it’s boring !
2- Tony is only on for one episode , this according to IMDB . At first I did not believe this but since we’re almost at the halfway point I think IMDB is correct when they list him for one episode on the cast list .

Chlojack

Daniel

guys the apocalypse isn’t here yet..LOL….who cares about live day ratings anymore….in 2017 do people actually sit and wait for a show to air…I know thousands of people who don’t…and besides 24 legacy is showing in 160 countries…not everyone is comfortably in their houses in the states waiting for 24 cummon….. it just started in the U.K here and people are talking, watching and loving it don’t know about those other skeptics haha

RonnieC6

Here is my take on the show and why I am not surprised that the ratings continue to tank. The original series had, from the get-go, characters that we could immediately become attached to, whether they were good guys or bad guys, and most of the actors did outstanding jobs of portrayal. From Jack to Tony, Chloe, Mason, Buchanan, Nina, Palmer, Edgar, Lennox, Aaron, Nadia, President Taylor, Noah Daniels, and I could go on and on. Each season gave us so much. Furthermore, the stories, although sometimes similar, nevertheless were exciting. Each hour ended with the viewer wanting more. Lastly, there were over 200 broadcast hours of Kiefer’s Jack Bauer. For the die hard fans such as myself, he became part of us, once a week.

Now skip to the new joke of a show. The writers are trying to make the lead character as much like Jack as possible. This is obvious to me, but it doesn’t work. He tries to come off tough but there is no real emotion. Furthermore, how many minutes in first 4 episodes is he actually on screen….very few. All of the other characters are completely nondescript, and the acting is average at best. Miranda Otto plays the exact same character that she did in everything else, especially Homeland. Her husband the senator is not much of a character. The director of CTU and the 2 analysts are absolutely a joke. Can anyone remember their names? Then there is the story. The terrorists, after 1/3 of the season has passed, have hardly been around. What, maybe 10-15 minutes on screen? Then we have the saga of Carter’s wife and brother, which is a complete waste of way too much time. And the high school girl and the teacher, so what. The season is 1/3 over and nothing ties together. The bottom line with the story is that there is really not much happening.

Now keep in mind that what I am saying is nothing more then my opinion, and you have every right to have an opinion completely opposite of mine, which I respect. For those who like the new show, more power to you. I have been watching TV for many a year, and 24 is my all time favorite show. Because of this, nothing can replace the original. Sure, I am disappointed that Live Another Day did not have closure, and even more disappointed that Kiefer is not back in the lead role. And I think it is a joke that FOX has to tease that Tony is coming back in order to attract viewers and, after 4 episodes, no Tony. Without Kiefer, I wish FOX would have just ended it after season 9. Lastly, after 8 seasons of 24 episodes, 12 episodes does not work for me, as proven with Live Another Half Day.

Dave26

I dislike everything about the Amira storyline and character. The teacher/student duo never felt believable to me. And then her ex-boyfriend being killed and his “dead” body being left on the classroom floor during school hours, only for him to miraculously wake up an hour later and jump out of a window to escape…. It’s all too silly and contrived.

John Donovan I like, but it’s basically Day 1’s Senator Palmer plot all over again, minus the most intriguing aspect: the assassination threat (which was important in linking the two stories together). I like him, but don’t love him yet. Palmer had a bunch of inspiring scenes early on that made you root for him (telling the thug in the parking lot to turn his life around, telling the young school kid that he will become the first black President, etc). Donovan has been lacking scenes like that.

Eric Carter is probably the best part of the show so far, and I think Corey is doing a good job in the role, but I feel like even his character could be handled better on the writing side.

I do hope it gets better on the character front as the season progresses. In previous seasons there were characters I fell in love with right from their very first episode they were introduced. I’d usually at least have some kind of reaction to them. These characters, not so much…

Gus

I stand corrected about Carlos only being listed for one episode , a few weeks ago he was indeed listed for only one episode on IMDB .
However , I stand by what I said earlier , they waited too long to bring him into the story line .
Many people I know , all die hard 24 fans , have jumped ship because of the weak cast.
I will continue watching to see what Tony offers to this farce of 24 !

Legacy finished with 9.02 million viewers after live+7. Considering the drop in live ratings, the live+7 ratings will likely drop for episodes 3-4 as well. I wonder what kind of live+7 numbers it needs to maintain for a renewal.

Dan R

I think character development is difficult with a show like this. I found character development easier with the original series because they had more time to develop a character. 24 was 24 episodes. Now there are only 12 episodes to develop a plot and get the story to the end. Its harder to develop a character in the 24 series with only 12 episodes. If the writers were doing a new cast then they should have done 24 episodes so we can have time to know and care for these guys. I love 24 and will continue to watch no matter what. I just wish they went back to the 24 episode format.

I would say this is partially true. It’s harder to do character development in half the episodes, but 24: Live Another Day was also twelve episodes and I thought handled the characters much better at this same point in the story.

I felt sympathetic towards Kate Morgan right from the start (when she was packing her belongings and being transferred/fired). I was rooting for her to redeem herself from the very first episode. It was exciting watching her figure out what was going on, chasing down Bauer, and then eventually teaming up with him. All this happened within the first four episodes of 24 LAD.

The villains had much more of an impact too. By this same point in the story we had Simone being chased around, stabbing a guy in the head, Margot’s introduction and the whole family aspect, Simone’s finger being chopped off, her husband being killed, etc. Legacy’s villains are generic guys sitting around in a generic warehouse setting not doing much of anything. I would bet that 95% of viewers can’t even name the lead bad guy of Legacy.

Brad

Say what you will about Live Another Day but, holy crap, how good was Mark Boudreau!?

Didn’t Robert Cochrane once say that “the rhythm of the show is Jack”? I think Legacy is struggling because the rhythm of the show is gone. Kiefer’s presence alone elevated the series. He demanded the best out of himself and, by extension, brought out the best in everyone else around him. That presence is largely gone (even if he is an executive producer). That central pillar from which everything else in the show orbits is gone.

Marlon

I think we have potential for decent character development – in Rebecca Ingram and her history as Head of CTU. Seems to be a lot that we don’t know which could pop up soon especially when Tony arrives.

I love that we only get a glimpse of these characters in one day. We have seen Tony for 6 days. There is so much that we don’t know about him outside of these days. There may be an interesting dynamic between the 2 characters.

Louise Engel

So, I loved 24, as did everyone. This current series has potential, but I think they are really running into the problem of 12 vs, 24 episodes. It seems like too much is jammed into each episode, whereas in the first iteration had 24 episodes to develop the characters and storylines. For 12 episodes, t has to be streamlined. And the characters aren’t being developed enough. For episode 4, Eric wasn’t on screen enough to get a real sense of him. So how can we like him? Jack was all there and amazing right from the beginning, and almost always on screen.
The producers, writers, etc., have to really create characters we care about. That’s the most important issue, for me at least.

Justin

Manny Coto also said on our 24 Legacy group page a season 2 is a very good chance as live ratings is not the only thing that locks in a show’s future or success. Howard Gordon said the same thing.

Fox looks at everything from live, DVR, online, on demand, stories, relationship with producers, budget, it does better than several other fox shows when u factor ratings in across all platforms not just live, people like to binge watch 24 as they hate watching commercials during show.

Also they will consider success in the other 160 countries and remember the original 24 started off small in ratings and ratings grew each season from season 2 onwards.

For a show on its 10th season and on for 15 years, these ratings are good without Jack. You cannot compare to original as Legacy is doing just fine in today’s TV landscape with changing TV viewing habits as Technology evolves and less people watch shows live and watch Delayed. That is why Fox stopped relying on live ratings to get with modern times, to be fair to all viewers across all platforms. Something other networks have to do as well.

Tony will bring in viewers when he is back as well. 24 Legacy has been awesome thus far and will only get better. I love Eric Carter and the cast.

Herbert

Did you actually read what you wrote. There is enough missing data in your post to sink a fleet of ships. If you actually quoted facts instead of asserting people would see how baseless you comment is.

Herbert

It done. It was a bad idea and its ratings are going from bad to worse. I feel sorry for the young actor who hitched his hopes to this turkey. Get it off the air already before serious damage is done to his career.

WouldntYouLikeToKnow

I genuinely doubt this is hurting Corey’s career. He’s been doing the absolute best he can in my opinion. Compared to TWD where he’s hugely underused and has had barely any scenes at all. (plus a horrible wig haha)

Brian

1) If this wasn’t 24, I would not be watching it. What is interesting here to me the show carrying on with a new crew. I say this from a theater / analytical / scholastic standpoint. This peeks my interest. But if I never saw 24 or was a fan, I would have no reason to care. You are welcome to extrapolate from this point that the only viewers (for the most part) will be former 24 fans.

2a) The story thus far in laymen terms is over a missing thumb drive with some information on it while other editions / seasons of 24 have dealt with nuclear meltdowns, disease outbreaks, drone hijackings, nerve gas, etc. I just don’t feel the tension / gravity here over this particular crisis.

2b) The writers seem to ignore the fact that if the thumb drive is reacquired, that the audience is to believe that the ‘day has been saved’. With duplication technologies so prevalent in today’s world, how are we to assume that somehow the enemy didn’t duplicate the data somehow either during a commercial break, or frankly what a logical person with an IQ over 75 would do.

Side note: This has often frustrated me over 24 over the years, which we saw a lot in Season 5 with the Logan recordings. Why didn’t jack just play the recording over the phone to someone at CTU? Yes, the playback quality wouldn’t have been awesome, but it would have been the obvious thing to do. Also, the conversations between Logan and Henderson (and others) were more incriminating than what was on the recordings. Plus, again, the assumption is that there is no such thing in the 24 universe as duplication technology, whereas when something is destroyed, it is assumed forever destroyed, which I guess is the ultimate goal.

3) I am just not feeling the Huma Abedin character.

4) Something about the John Donovan character reminds me of the Season 8 cast (e.g. Omar Hassan). There also seems to be some sort of effort to resuscitate some of the Season 1 themes. It is as if they used the scripts from Season 1 and drew a template for a new story based on that rough composite sketch.

The whole thing is a difficult sell and I just don’t find the show very interesting other than the fact that “Tony is coming back” and it is 24 without Jack. Perhaps if we saw Chloe O’Brien walking down the street in non-goth clothes and got ran into by a fleeing terrorist, I would be more excited.

The Predictor

I have officially given up on ’24 Legacy’. Seasons 1 – 5 of ’24’ as a whole was TV at its finest. Season 6 was a mess. Seasons 7 and 8 were sub-par and then ’24’ came back strong for season 9 after it’s hiatus. I think it is debatable whether ’24 Legacy’ is even worse than season 6. I was willing to give the show a chance with its new cast and I like some the actors but the writing is so much worse than earlier seasons of ’24’. The show has become silly. Instead of watching ’24 Legacy’ any longer, I have decided to re-watch season 4 of ’24’ with my 14 year old daughter. She is loving it. And I much rather re-watch a great season of ’24’ than continue watching ’24 Legacy’.

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